With the warmer, sunnier days of summer approaching and the long, dreary Vancouver winter fading in memory, my thoughts return to the intense sun-drenched climate of Argentina's, Mendocino province. Accordingly I've offered to host our next wine club meeting for May 31, at my place with Mendoza Malbec as our theme. Something new for the club, I'm going to try live videoblogging of our meeting on ustream.tv, a free social new media tool I learned about today from a great session by Roland Tanglao at MooseCamp.

The Grape that France Forgot

Malbec, perhaps one of the best examples of a varietal that is profoundly affected by terroir, can under the right conditions produce a spicy, dark fruit with ample tannins, complexity and great aging potential. Unlike the thicker-skinned Merlot grape, which can pretty much be successfully grown in most wine regions, Malbec seems to only reach its true potential in the hot, arid and consistently sunny region of Argentina's Mendoza province. Located approximately 2500 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Andes, Mendoza has concentrated sunlight, hot dry days, and cool evenings. Very different from the Auxerrois in France, where it is used primarily as a mid-palate blending grape in Claret, and where in the more moderate Bordeaux climate it has difficulty achieving full ripeness. In Mendoza, it has blackberry jammy characteristics consistent with wines from a hot climate.

Amongst the different appellations within the province of Mendoza, the premier (or Class One) area for Malbec is widely considered to be Maipú. To my great tasting delight, I had the incredible fortune to stay in a villa there over the holidays this year which was fabulous on both my pocketbook (prices are a 1/3 of what you'd find in North America) and my palate.

My favorite Malbecs and Malbec blends from the visit were Monteviejo (regrettably not available in Canada) and Clos de los Siete produced by a consortium of seven bodegas under the guidance of the infamous Michel Rolland and located in what seemed like the middle of nowhere (we drove forever on dusty backgroads to get there) in the Uco Valley D.O.C. Others also included Familia Zuccardi Zeta (had the friendliest staff) from Maipú and Luigi Bosca Reserva also from Maipu.

A food-friendly wine, great pairings with Malbec don't have to be Argentine beef. I'd suggest: game or white meats with a bit of heat like roasted chicken or grilled pork, or meaty fish such as grilled halibut, monkfish, shark or swordfish. For cheeses, I recommend some that are hard and salty like Asiago, Parmesan and Romano. And of course for dessert anything with chocolate :) Recipe ideas are available on foodandwine.com.

On a somewhat related topic, this summer perhaps someone could host a meeting where we focus on the other famous Argentine varietal, Torrontes. A fresh aromatic grape with lovely similarities to Viognier, Torrontes has notes of candied peach, honeysuckle, and lychee nut. Yum! Despite being the most widely planted white grape in Argentina and Chile, the wine is hard to find in North America and thus we might be limited in trying a tasting here :(